FRIENDLY FIRE

11.28.11

NATO Didn’t Aim for Pakistanis

S.S. MIRZA / Getty Images

According to U.S. officials, a case of mistaken identity was likely to blame for the NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani troops over the weekend. The raid allegedly began when a joint U.S.-Afghan Special Operations team was attacked by militants in Afghanistan. U.S. military records show that the team checked with Pakistani officials before responding with strikes on what a U.S. commander believed was a militant encampment that was in fact a Pakistani base. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was furious, telling CNN on Monday morning that there would be “no more business as usual” with Washington.